A Family’s Experience with COVID-19 at Home

Jul 17, 2026

A Family’s Experience with COVID-19 at Home provides plain, accurate guidance for families caring for people with COVID-19 without medical help. Through Anita’s experience, it explains how to learn about the virus, teach community safety practices, and reduce transmission by frequent handwashing, wearing masks, avoiding long time with people outside the household, and maintaining a two-meter distance. The narrative then follows symptom onset and emphasizes staying home and separating from others to limit spread.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

Family learning and community safety

Preventing virus spread at home

Recognizing symptoms and isolating

A Family’s Experience with COVID-19 at Home Easily understood and accurate guidance for families and communities who must care for COVID-19 patients at home without medical help. English Health A Family’s Experience with COVID-19 at Home Lois W. Varenkamp Images by Mark Marcuson, © 2021 SIL International. CC BY-NC 4.0. English [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) You are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. Adapted from original, A Family’s Experience with COVID-19 at Home, Copyright © 2021, SIL International. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Adapted with permission from COVID-19 Home Based Care: How to do it best for the patient and the family, 2020, DifaemGerman Institute for Medical Mission, www.difaem. This resource has been developed using reputable public health sources for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. For questions or concerns about any topic described here, please consult a health professional. Anita and her family live in a small town . She loves her job as teacher but the school is closed because of the COVID-19 virus . At home, Anita has listened to radio programs and has learned a lot about the virus and how to keep it from spreading. With all that she has learned Anita helps to teach her community how to keep themselves safe from the virus . Even though going out and talking with lots of people increases her risk of getting the virus, she knows that it’s important for everyone to knowhow to prevent the virus from spreading. She teaches her neighbors,“We must be careful to wash our hands often" . Then she explains,“We need to wear masks when we leave our homes or when we are with people who do not live in the same house asus". "We also must try to avoid spending lots of time with people outside of our own household" . "Also, we need to keep two meters away from other people when we shop, work or talk to neighbors" . "Doing these things will help to stop the virus from spreading from person to person”. One day, Anita doesn’t feel well. She has a bad headache, a fever, and has begun to cough. Also, she notices that she cannot taste or smell her food. Anita realizes that she has Covid-19 . Right away she tells her family and says,“We all need to stay home and keep away from others . You might have the virus, too, even though you do not feel sick. You could easily spread the virus to others .” Then Anita goes and stays alone in a separate room, away from the family. She does not want to give them the sickness .

FAQs

How does Anita learn about COVID-19 while the school is closed?

Anita listens to radio programs at home and learns how the virus works and how to stop it from spreading.

What prevention steps does Anita teach her neighbors?

She emphasizes frequent handwashing, wearing masks when leaving home or being around people outside the household, avoiding long time with outsiders, and keeping two meters away when shopping, working, or talking with neighbors.

What should a family do when someone starts showing COVID-19 symptoms?

The person should tell the family, stay home, and keep away from others because they could spread the virus even if others do not feel sick; isolation in a separate room is recommended.

Jul 17, 2026

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